Defending a Dead Kingdom
by Aleron's Sword
Summary: A deserted castle, yet a king resides it, forever bound to it due to his failure. One-shot.


**Hey-o, bringing you a one-shot to try and keep this profile alive.**

**This was written around the time I was playing Terraria and was wanting to make a rather huge castle on one of my world. I apologize for any mistakes in this, seeing this was written late at night and I pushed myself to finish it till day-break.**

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In the throne room, the king of an old age sat. Resting on a throne that was fit for a ruler, made out of solid gold emanating power that those lesser than that status would instantly give respect to. His ivory and golden armor gleamed dully in the rays of light coming in through the stained-glass window behind his position. The pattern of the window shown his younger self, bearing crimson-colored armor, sword held high as he stood over many beasts.

Flanking the central glass were two others, the one on the left showing the man at a younger age, unarmored and wearing simple clothing. He was building a small home, and had tools made of copper. The one on the right though, shown him leading an army against monsters in a land of violet grass and dead trees.

The armor-clad man let out a long sigh, shifting as he slowly started to stand. Over the years of coming to this land, he had slain thousands of beasts, big or small, necessity or materials, it didn't matter. He had also provided homes for those who came to the land as well, serving as the guard for it when night fell or a blood moon arose.

Once he fully stood, he started to walk away from the throne, slowly walking around the room. He had done this almost daily, exploring the castle that he built by himself. Two years of construction went into it, largely in mining to get the materials needed for the floors, walls and ceilings of each room. The throne room was built largely with gray stone, chandeliers made of platinum hanging from the ceiling, while the halls were made of dulled copper bricks. Every other room was made out of a different kind of brick, all made from the various ores he found over his lifetime.

Reaching one door off to the other side of the room, he reached over and opened it, going down one of the halls to one room he knew lead to the foyer of the castle. The foyer was also a form of battle ground should one of the Great Threats – as he calls them – come to be. There were platforms lining the walls, allowing easy movement around the place to get better attack angles on the foe.

Walking up to another door on the first floor, he opened it to walk through, being greeted by another copper-colored hallway. This one he remembered leading to the castles blacksmith, whom made armor and weapons to the solders that once lived here, and even repaired his equipment. Over a year ago, there was always at least one soldier down this hall, mainly to get their equipment repaired. The closest to that sign were a pair of suits of armor, both on either side of the hallway, both wearing silver armor.

Through a third door and he walked into the forge, seeing the ring of stones with long-extinguished ashes resting in the center. Lining the walls were ingots of various resources, ranging from simple copper to the ever-warm Hellstone, and up to the valuable but difficult to obtain and reshape Hollow. He remembered quite clearly when he first obtained ingots of hollow metal; It was very difficult, having to summon The Destroyer and defeat it. He was close to death after the fight, but a swig of a potion was able to heal him enough to see the valuable mineral, one kind he felt that no one else in the land saw before.

Picking up an ingot of the Hollow, he felt the light weight of it, slowly turning it in his hand to take in the pearlescent scheme it had; Ivory when exposed to light, then to a form of gold when the lights at an angle to it. Even rapping a knuckle against it a couple times resulted in a calm ding, knowing that even the pincers from the beasts of the corruption wouldn't puncture it. Setting the ingot back into its spot, the king made his way out of the forge, heading back down the hall. Along the way though, he heard the deep chime of a bell far above, freezing in his steps, eyes under his helmet widening.

That very bell was of his design, and it was to ring only when a Great Threat was coming. One was to signal that only one of them was coming, but even then they were a challenge. Without hesitation after the bell sound faded did he rush towards the foyer, holding a hand out as a beam of light formed. Barging through the door, the light faded to reveal a blade that was similar in color to his armor, his personal blade named Excalibur now in his grip. The size of it would have been a two-handed blade, but the king was able to wield it with ease with only one.

Another bell chime sounded out, his eyes widening again. A second ring could mean that The Twins could appear. His last battle with them was a very dangerous one, Spazmatizm wasn't too awful, but its brother, Retinazer, almost cost the king his life. Being like Chulhu's Eye, they both went berserk when they were severely wounded, making the battle even more dangerous. Entire fields were set ablaze by the cursed flames the first spewed out, with trees toppled and burning from the seconds lasers it fired almost constantly.

A third chime and another potential threat was approaching. The Destroyer was on his mind for this one, seeing that it could rocket past him in the blink of an eye. Not only that, but the lasers it fired would put Retinazers amount to shame, if not counting the damage they could do. The probes added even more to that, effectively turning any battlefield into a deadly light show.

The bell chimed a fourth time, and the potential threat that could come made him wince; Skeletron Prime. He remembered the robotized skeleton abomination all too well. He was originally the controller of an old man that guarded a dungeon, but was defeated the night after. When he came back, it was far more difficult than he originally thought. Twice the arms, each carrying a different and deadly weapon; One had a chainsaw, another a grenade launcher, a third a pincer, and the last a laser cannon. Not only that, but when the head spun, spikes shot out and made it even more deadlier than last time.

A fifth and sixth bell rang, showing that all the threats he encountered would be coming, and all at the same time. The last two he couldn't remember clearly, but remembered one of them being a temple guardian, the other a plant monster. The latter he remembered unintentionally summoning when he was crawling through the underground caverns of a jungle, forced to flee with a magic mirror to prepare before returning to finish the job.

When the bell slowly fell silent, the ground started to quake. Quiet at first, but slowly grew in intensity. Without a second thought, the man jumped forward, the ground erupting at his spot a split second later. Time slowed as he looked back, seeing the mechanical head of the Destroyer ripping up stone, chunks of it to be flying away from the surfacing. Returning to normal speed, he landed on his feet, seeing the machine crash into the ceiling as its body sped with it, seeing roots starting to form from the cracks.

Another crash came from the front entrance, his gaze snapping to it and had to dodge a wall of debris heading for him. Skidding to a stop, he saw the glows from the golem, as well as the red one from the twins' chain, the giant eyes flanking it as the floated past it. A third crash and he saw the Destroyer flying down, smashing into the stone floor and through it with ease. When it fully looped, it took a portion of the ceiling with it, seeing four bone-like arms floating down from above. Floating above them was the metallic skull that served as the metaphorical leader of the six, the glowing red eyes glaring at the armor-clad man before it.

Taking a slightly hesitant step back, the king looked at the monsters that swarmed into the lobby, seeing the root-like claws that served as Plantera's main method of movement coming up from the ground to pull the bulb up. He caught a quick glimpse of a form of mangled corpse in one of the roots, able to recognize it as a goblin, scowling at the fact that it probably lead them to this castle. Shaking the thought off, he glared at the monsters as they returned the gesture, seeing the weapons all primed and ready to fire.

His mind raced on the best course of action, but knew that this battle could possibly be a lost cause. Each of them by themselves are dangerous enough, but all together would mean the true end of him. A small sigh escaped from him, his left hand glowing as he conjured the light rings he had. Lightly flicking, the seemingly one ring became five, looking up at the beasts with a determined gaze. He knew that he would die, but he would do so with a fight, charging at them while letting out a war cry. With a powerful bound, he jumped up with sword raised, disks reared back to throw.

He was going to avenge everyone that once lived in this castle, or die trying.

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**Now, to those who have been in the dark about Terraria or haven't played it in such a long time; Said game had gone through a huge update, adding a lot more content in the game, including new biomes, weapons, bosses, loot, etc. The two new hard mode bosses were listed; Plantera and The Golem. I'm not gonna spoil how they attack and what to do to summon them, but I will tell you this; Get the higher tier armor.**


End file.
